


Birthday Boy

by PeepMeep



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! - All Media Types, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Gen, hap birth boy 2018, 海馬瀬人生誕祭2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-24
Updated: 2018-10-24
Packaged: 2019-08-07 00:35:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16398068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PeepMeep/pseuds/PeepMeep
Summary: The issue with being a public figure was that private details of his life were too easy for others to find. But Kaiba didn’t really care if people knew how old he was, the circumstances of his childhood, or even his dueling record—despite how much losing to Yugi still bothered him to this day—but he was adamant that people did not know his birthdate.





	Birthday Boy

**Author's Note:**

> This piece was originally published in the (free!) zine Game Start. You can check it out [here!](https://issuu.com/prrtnrr/docs/gamestartzine/25)

The issue with being a public figure was that private details of his life were too easy for others to find. But Kaiba didn’t really care if people knew how old he was, the circumstances of his childhood, or even his dueling record—despite how much losing to Yugi still bothered him to this day—but he was adamant that people did  _ not _ know his birthdate. It was a reminder of things he wanted to forget: voices too loud and too harsh for a child, guilt, disappointment all around. Human resources had to know, legally, but they were under strict orders to do nothing with that information or let it leak to other areas of the company.

That still left the greater world of paparazzi and celebrity worship to deal with. Trashy papers on newsstands alternated between discussing his Scorpio traits and full introspectives of his life. It wasn’t uncommon for one of his “friends” to be grilled for any personal details they could have; on more than one occasion he had to confront Joey for saying things such as that he was grown in a lab. At least most people realized it wasn’t true.

At some point it was deduced what area of time was around his birthdate, which only drove tabloids to dig deeper. No one could prove they were right, but it meant that mid October to mid November was a never-ending parade of people poking around where the shouldn’t. It could range from mildly annoying to a ruiner of his day. The fact that it was actually his birthday today made it much worse.

He sat in his car, in his special parking space right next to the elevators. He was here today because he wanted to treat it like any other. There was work to be done, meetings to have and projects to move along. 

And hundreds of people who knew what day it is and would find a way to piss him off.

  
  


“Good morning, sir, ha-”

“What do you do here again?” He glared at the young man sharing the elevator with him. Not fresh out of college, if he had to guess, but still early in his career, still green enough to realize his mistake.

“I uh-uh-uh-”

“I’m not familiar with that department.” Kaiba crossed his arms, at least as much as he could without jostling his coffee. Buying something utterly ridiculous as that sugar bomb was one of the few concessions he’d allow himself that day. Nothing anyone would notice.

The elevator dinged and came to a halt. The staffer ducked his head. “This is my floor, sir, can’t be late for my meeting.” He bolted out, almost running into another employee. Her face lit up when she saw who’d she’d share the ride with; Kaiba felt something in his forehead twitch.

He regarded her, another unknown face. She was dressed in a blouse and a pencil skirt, stuffy enough for an MBA-type job, the sort of person only focusing on numbers and not unquantifiable things like the fun you had while dueling. Necessary evils in running a company this large, but not the type who’d climb the ladder far at the ex-military weapons company.

“Been a tough morning, Mr. Kaiba?”

He closed his eyes and took a breath before answering; he knew his scowl must be even more severe than usual. “Too many interruptions.” In fact, no meaningful work had been completed yet, he’d too busy staying away from as many people as possible while finding time to answer emails on his phone. He couldn't be in his office, it was too obvious a place to find him. 

“I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but there’s an emergency meeting and we would appreciate your input, we’ll need to…”

He stopped paying attention. Reading others was a key strategy in dueling and was just as helpful in the corporate world. The way she talked was too animated for any of the business groups that would necessitate a meeting like that. If something were truly on fire then his phone would be blowing up by now.

“Which team did you say this was again?”

She flinched. “Ah, product marketing.”

Kaiba marveled at her ability to have picked the worst thing to lie about, as it was one of the few areas where he regularly checked in, often on their floor to see the status of various projects himself.

He smirked. “What are the major KPIs for our newest vertical?”

A flash of panic, she knew she was caught. “Okay, the meeting isn’t with them, but we still need you,” she explained, hands moving faster than before. “It’s really important that we...what are you doing?”

“Kicking you out.” He finished typing in the secret code to override the elevator. It stopped on the next floor. 

“But-” She glanced at the now open doors.

“Out, now.” He made a mental note to look these two up later and see why they hadn’t gotten the message. But for now he forced the elevator up to the top floor. Again it dinged as it stopped and he stepped out to the lobby of his office. His secretary looked up but went back to their work, no doubt deflecting even more attempts at blindsiding him.

His office was the same familiar, safe space it always was. Entering, he punched some numbers into a panel, causing the glass walls to frost over and keep anyone from seeing inside. He double-checked that the door was locked before stomping over to his desk. His chair sunk down as he dropped onto it. He closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair.

It was just one day, he made it through this dozens of times before. And who was to stop him if he wanted to go home early? There were no meetings with external partners today and he knew his staff wouldn’t complain to him about any reschedules. Anyone who suspected the truth would just assume he was going to celebrate in private.

It was a tempting idea. Mokuba would still be at the office so he would be home by himself. There wasn’t much he could do. Drink, probably, but he knew how absolutely miserable that sounded and how he would look to anyone who found out.

There was the unmistakable sound of the deadbolt, sliding in the lock, causing him to bolt up in his seat. The number of people who had access like this was  _ very  _ small and he was in no mood to deal with any given staff member. There was the quietest sound as the well oiled hinges swung open.

“Hey, Seto.” Mokuba poked his head in. 

Kaiba sighed. “What is it?” His voice was tired, he could show weakness here. They’ve seen the worst sides of each other, survived through hell together, being able to lower their shields here was nothing.

Mokuba slipped in and closed the door behind him. “I’m sorry about the meeting, it was a surprise to me, too.” He sighed. “You’d think that the long-time employees would tell the new ones it won’t work, but they never seem to listen.” 

Kaiba made a noise of acknowledgement. “What’s that?” His eyes were drawn to the brown box Mokuba held at his hip.

Mokuba blinked. “Oh, this? It came earlier than I thought it would, and I know that you said that you don’t want any presents, but...I thought you could use something to distract yourself from today.” He walked over and placed the box on his brother’s desk.

He regarded it carefully. It was too beat up to be from another business but there was still the familiar paperwork in the plastic pouch that international shipping required. It was already opened but was hastily taped back shut, obviously done in their mailroom. 

He slit open the rest of the tape with the letter opener, too curious to look for something more suitable. Inside was a bunch of crumpled up newspaper, in some language he didn’t recognize, a musty smell that was a bit off putting. Nestled in the box was a stuffed animal in the shape of Blue-Eyes White Dragon. He picked it up, limbs and neck understuffed and floppy.

“This isn’t one of ours?” He made an effort to always use the best manufacturers, especially with Blue-Eyes, but the design seemed simple enough to be handmade, but between the plastic eyes and the misaligned smile on the seam, it had to have been mass-produced.

“I was just going around online and saw some old Duel Monsters toys,” Mokuba explained, a grin growing on his face. “It felt familiar and I looked up one of the commercials and I remember you watching it. I could tell how much you wanted one.”

Memories of the orphanage were hazy, but there was a tv they watched sometimes, Duel Monsters was popular back then. He always was drawn to Blue-Eyes White Dragon, somehow, from the very beginning; he wondered how he could have forgot about it, as he prided himself on having every other thing known to man with the dragon on it.

“I’d totally forgotten about it, too, and I knew you didn’t have it, so I wanted to surprise you with one. You’d think it was the actual card, with how few I could find and how unwilling people are to let them go. But I finally found someone! What they were asking for wasn’t completely crazy, too.”

Kaiba lowered the plushie and placed it on the desk, it forming into a heap of its own body parts.He pushed himself back from the desk and stood up, Mokuba watching his every move.

“Seto…?” And now his brother was in front of him, on one knee and pulling him into a hug. Neither of them said anything, the silence only broken from a shaky exhale from the elder.

“Thank you,” Kaiba said, voice cracking. “This means a lot.”

Mokuba laughed quietly. “Anything for my big bro.”

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/chasestarb) and [tumblr](http://phektrek.tumblr.com/)! I'm always open for commissions, message me if interested. You can find info about commissions [here](http://www.chasej.xyz/commission-information/).  
> 


End file.
